$150,000K a year is barely enough to own a sandbox anymore -- Quidities Thread for ILXile

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2011/12/09/americans-say-150000-a-year-is-rich/

You just don't even need to read the comments. You can make them up, and they will be the same as the real ones.

America OTM, assuming you lead a reasonable/sustainable lifestyle and don't have any kids

http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/103560000/103563248.jpg

I can see some complaints about the nuances of it, I guess. For example, people who go to top law schools can leave with $150K+ in debt easily, especially if they have a little undergrad debt too. Then some of them get these jobs that start at $160K and pay bonus too. Which is holy shit a lot of money for a 25-year-old to make. But (1) they have $1500 loan payments every month, (2) they probably have to live in Manhattan or the inner outer boroughs (or equivalent neighborhood in whatever expensive-ass city) because they're working 12-14 hour days and (3) these jobs only last like 5 years and then most people wind up at lower salaries in their next jobs.

Not feeling sorry for anyone like that, but I can see scenarios where you wouldn't feel "rich" while working 70 hour weeks and living with roommates, even with high income.

Dont think they are representative of overall demographic, relatively few people in that income bracket work in big law.

its more than 90 some percent of people make therefor its rich, income isnt as accurate a measurement as wealth, but still

Meanwhile, the ACTUAL ruling class has a special holiday message for you:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-20/bankers-join-billionaires-to-debunk-imbecile-attack-on-top-1-.html

no one said 150k a/y was actual ruling class

I realize that -- didn't mean it that way

yeah yeah sure sure lower tier rich apologist

one thing that always annoys me is the "making 150k in nyc is like making 60k in ohio" or whatever. I mean there are some things that are objectively more expensive in certain metro areas but a lot of the stuff people include in the 'cost of living' in nyc is just keeping up with the joneses type shit.

vietnamese food is waay cheaper in new york

is it? it's a good deal in clevo, usa

http://mekongriverinc.com/img/mekong.pdf

Where in the 5 boroughs do you need to be before 1 bedroom apartments under $2K become non-laughable and how large can you expect them to be? Can you still find that in Brooklyn?

I have a really great 1br a block from the subway for $1150

u can find 1brs under 2k in the nice parts of brooklyn, in manhattan even!

iatee lives in queens btw

it's true ;_;

aw

but yeah in the less expensive parts of manhattan that's not even unfeasible. most of brooklyn, all of queens outside a few rich pockets, most of path jersey, parts of the bronx are also decent places to buy a lil house.

lol so basically Boston is now more expensive housing-wise than NYC? that's ridiculous

(not that you can't find decently-priced 1BRs here, it's just the days of the low $1K seem to be long gone ;_;)

(man I wish I was moving to NYC)

new york is still more expensive all things considered, but boston is well known for being v expensive!

rip my 1997 $900 jp 4br

boston also has considerably less housing stock and can't really build more at the rate nyc can.

that was the most disgusting apartment in the world fwiw but still xp

I think if you judge by 'decent 1br in okay neighborhood on train' nyc is prob 'cheaper' than sf, boston, dc

yeah, I've always gotten the sense that NYC's real estate was grossly inflated by everyone thinking the entire city was CPW or Chelsea

not if you include places the train goes that arent in 'boston', which you prob should xp

nycs real estate is grossly inflated tho!

also the nyc subway goes way more places than those other cities trains do

fuck an apartment broker tho

no thx, I'm married

http://cdn.timeoutnewyork.com/sites/timeoutnewyork.com/files/imagecache/timeout_492x330/images/articles/760/760.ft.x491.brokers.1.jpg

would broke

i'm taking a self-imposed lurker role for the foreseeable future (or at least until we're out of sandbox), but really this needed to be shared:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/nyregion/a-wedding-as-a-festival-of-ideas-and-self-promotion.html

a loft-like store for arty bibliophiles

a lot of the stuff people include in the 'cost of living' in nyc is just keeping up with the joneses type shit.

The cost of the major expenses - housing and food - is not.

ooh u have to eat u bougie fuck

you can eat as cheap in ny as anywhere

i want to throw up on this paragraph:

During the reception, Mr. Friedlander asked his guests to please recycle their cups, “because we’re really in a serious situation with climate change.” There was no guest list in the formal sense; the reception was open to anyone who wished to attend. Friends came, and friends of friends, whom the couple had never met. Before the ceremony in the Brooklyn bookstore, Ms. Schmidt walked into the Starbucks at Main and Front Streets and told strangers they were welcome to drop by.

They did not want their wedding “to be just about us,” the groom told me

at this point, I stopped reading and started laughing hearitly

gah stupid typos

man if I were sitting in a starbucks and someone invited me to their wedding I would totally go

what if they didnt want it to be about u

Easiest argument against "Manhattan is 3x more expensive than <X>" is median incomes - IIRC from an old argument with gabbneb, median income in Manhattan proper is still only $60k or something like that, and lower if you include areas with (relatively) easy access to Manhattan. vs $42k national median, etc.

all weddings are abt me thats just how it is

what if you had to tell them what you were committed to

i am commited to doing the macarena with somebody's grandma in a hotel bar after too much shrimp cocktail

I would tell them that I was committed to punching them in the face

Ms. Schmidt, who once served as the creative director of Moomah, the children’s cafe in Tribeca that caters to parents in denial about some of the distasteful aesthetics of child-rearing, made the cards in her favored style of heavy stock, neutral paper and quaint typefaces. Through her company, Screech Owl Design, Ms. Schmidt makes beautiful, twee paper products that would seem to demand an existence inside a Miranda July snow globe. Synergistically, Powerhouse is among the many places where Ms. Schmidt’s work is sold.

oh my god the author of this piece DESPISES them

Beyond any of that, though, the wedding was probably the first in the city to be held as a kind of TED conference. After the ceremony, in which chants were chanted and vows, written by the couple’s friends, were exchanged, guests sat down to a series of talks, with PowerPoint presentations, on subjects of interest to the couple — ecological efficiency, neuroscience, holistic healing. Those who did not care to listen wandered about eating dumplings and popcorn, which made up the entire nuptial meal.

like seriously, she wants to see them flayed

holy shit that is the best ending paragraph ever

i wonder how many people there said "oh my god. soooo good" when they ate the popcorn

Easiest argument against "Manhattan is 3x more expensive than <X>" is median incomes - IIRC from an old argument with gabbneb, median income in Manhattan proper is still only $60k or something like that, and lower if you include areas with (relatively) easy access to Manhattan. vs $42k national median, etc.

Those are not especially useful statistics, at least for purposes of this argument, as there is extreme variation from the median. There are many lower-income areas of the city in which people could not afford to live absent public housing or rent control laws.

"the popcorn really brings out the notes of fennel and cardamon in the shrimp"

commitment life: to see you flayed on your wedding day

ecological efficience: science
neuroscience: science
holistic healing: horseshit

http://sofiainvitationsblog.com/2011/11/18/real-couples-wedding-jacqueline-schmidt-and-david-friedlander/

"liz lemon is influential upon us"

Those who did not care to listen wandered about eating dumplings and popcorn, which made up the entire nuptial meal.

This mental image is just hilarious, bemused bored people ambling aimlessly around munching on popcorn and wondering why the hell someone is having a Powerpoint presentation during their wedding.

http://sofiainvitationsblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/all-you-need-is-love.jpg

put a bird on it

quaint typefaces

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbnYPrXx8H8

I really don't see how this couple could have made this entire enterprise any more about themselves without making everyone wear masks of their faces

I can imagine a horrible wedding like this in nearly every decade of the 20th century. and an article to correspond.

The '90s iteration would be all hobo style, with baja sweaters, henna tattoos, white guy dreads, tribal drumming, maybe brick-oven pizzas on a grill served beside samosa with weedy chutney

The '70s version would be better. Held on somebody's indoor/outdoor patio, involving crystals, essential oils, and readings of free-verse poetry followed by a bead-making party.

yeah, those would be fun in their own way, though, i imagine.

but this one is pushing it

also i would like to go on record as saying that TED is ass

come on everyone loves powerpoint

omg I didn't even read the captions on the pics: LISTEN UP David Friedlander spoke at his wedding, where there were lectures instead of a meal.

lol

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Chris_Anderson_2007.jpg/800px-Chris_Anderson_2007.jpg

get your frogbuttons off of my eyeballs you shit

merry xmas, have a nice blood

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/12/18/nyregion/18BIGCITY1/18BIGCITY1-popup.jpg

^^^ this is the picture that caption came from

ALLOW FOR THE UNKNOWN AND AMAZING

UNKOWN actually

WHAT YOU CAN DO?

isn't there a german word for presenting ideas that are otherwise reasonable if not for being rendered in off-puttingly smug ways?

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Fahrvergnugen-a.png

lol obv I didn't notice the typo

xp yeh. my guess was going to be dellscheiß or dellschmerz

should give a TED talk on how to tie a tie

years and years and a few years ago i had a job interview straight outta college but had almost never worn a tie in my life before (yes i led a very sheltered life but not in any glamorous way) anyhow, i was waiting for my roommate to get home b/c i knew that he knew all about that stuff... but the minutes passed, and he never showed up. i ended up going to the 7-11 down the street where i went most nights anyway (insert "markers" reference here) to buy snackfood. the store was owned by a pun alert -thai family- and the guy tried to do it for me, but the end result was so pitiable that i ended up waiting up until 4am or so when my roommate finally came home.

anyway i got the job. it was some ridiculous temp job working for some horrible pr firm.

moral of the story is, yeah you should.

i have to resort to google every time i need to tie a tie

Those are not especially useful statistics, at least for purposes of this argument, as there is extreme variation from the median. There are many lower-income areas of the city in which people could not afford to live absent public housing or rent control laws.

perhaps you don't interact w/ these people but there are *millions* of middle class people in the nyc metro area who don't live in the projects or depend on rent control

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish/201112/nfl-stars-environmentally-friendly-palace

wow your eight bedroom, six-car garage, lagoon-shaped swimming pool castle has *energy-saving lighting*

Tom Brady's 22,000-square foot palace near Los Angeles is nearing completion, and it will make almost any environmentalist smile.

*smiles*

absolutely cannot understand the appeal of living in a mansion

that's the rictus inducing neurotoxins in the cement fumes

man there are so many great reasons to live in a mansion: helps prolong murder investigations, dont have to see lousy family so much, can give yr house a name w/o seeming foolish/overreaching

it seems like it would be cool if you had a posse, but realistically not very many people have posses

trapdoors

cauldron of boiling oil placed above portico

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priest_hole

Those are not especially useful statistics, at least for purposes of this argument, as there is extreme variation from the median. There are many lower-income areas of the city in which people could not afford to live absent public housing or rent control laws.

perhaps you don't interact w/ these people but there are *millions* of middle class people in the nyc metro area who don't live in the projects or depend on rent control

I understand that facile condescension is something you can't resist, but a) I'm speaking of Manhattan and not the NYC metro area, and b) duh.

My point was that the figures are impacted substantially by government assistance, among other factors.

What iatee said, but also public housing and rent control exist, and people who live in Manhattan and the NYC metro area are using them and surviving. 'Extreme variations from the median' doesn't mean that the median isn't representative of the people who live there.

It's unrepresentative in the sense that if people had to actually pay full value for their housing, their salaries would have to be increased, or they would have to move. Either way, median salary would be (possibly substantially) higher.

There are also a fair number of young people in Manhattan whose salaries are subsidized by other sources including parents, under the table income, illegal activity, etc., without which they cold not make it here.

Not that that isn't true other places as well, but both the degree and dollar figures involved may be much greater in NYC.

my argument was "middle class people can live in new york" not "middle class people can live in the most expensive part of new york"

C.K. Dexter Holland, will you come back to the real ILX once that's back up?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH_9lU7UBHY#t=0m33s

Damn embedding - try 0:33 in.

Maybe this is the real ilx! Ever think bout that? xp

ilx, just realness

Mr. Hill gave a talk about the importance of personal downsizing, which was largely a talk about his life. Having made a lot of money in Internet businesses, Mr. Hill said, he first bought a big house and car and then got rid of possessions and traveled the world with only two bags, before moving into a trailer in Baja California, Mexico, and then into a cousin's garage in Maui, Hawaii. He found that he was quite happy.

Mr. Hill then gave a talk on the importance of identifying the most promising dumpsters within easy walking distance of one's cousin's garage and demonstrated how to prevent a shopping cart wheel from "going crazy".

absolutely cannot understand the appeal of living in a mansion

― nice catch cuauhtemoc blanco niño (dayo), Tuesday, December 20, 2011 7:41 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Permalink

i can understand not giving a fuck abt some contempo monstrosity, but man living in an old sprawling victorian palace would be so baller

*locks cooper chucklebutt up in a shuttered off remote wing of his sprawling victorian palace*

I feel like it would feel baller for 5 days, but then just start feeling like the shining

the shining is so baller (insane variant)

w/ fu

ilx is like a decrepid victorian mansion that has been used as a hunting retreat and school and a sanitorium and the ghosts of its different incarnations skulk around trying to relate to each other

amo, amas, amat

BANG! BANG!

(has photo taken with foot placed carefully on the carcass of a schoolchild)

(chortles and has a coughling fit, wherein bright red blood stains his handkerchief)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSYBRxr04BM

just killed ten minutes looking for pictures of julie as she looks today. no luck.

http://www.observer.com/2001/04/25yearold-broker-lee-munson-is-swaggering-relic-of-the-boom/

(from 4/02/01)

Last year, Mr. Munson said, he made more than $350,000.Hehas $100,000 in the bank and says that by the time he’s 40, he will be worth $28 million.

math

That story reads like "Random Guest at Coke Party Interviewed"

THE marriage game has no shortage of matchmakers, wedding planners, fashion stylists, floral designers and other referees.

Now joining their ranks is a group of consultants called proposal planners, who advise men, and sometimes women, who want to propose but are flummoxed about how to go about asking this life-altering question memorably.

For a fee, proposal planners promise to help plot a scenario for the key moment and assist in its execution, with just the right helicopter, hot-air balloon or gondola, and along with it the proper locale and musical accompaniment.

Sarah Pease, the owner of Brilliant Event Planning in New York, was focused solely on weddings and parties until 2008, when a friend proposed with an engagement ring at the bottom of a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. She then became a proposal planner as well.

Ms. Pease typically charges $500 for devising a plan; having her handle the whole operation can run $12,000, she said, plus any fees to those providing the transportation and site.

here's how you plan yr proposal:

1. buy a ring
2. ask yr partner to marry you

if your partner loves you, I guarantee you the proposal will be memorable

3. helicopter

4. kfc

my partner threw up later that night

should have read the signs tbh

Sarah Pease, the owner of Brilliant Event Planning in New York, was focused solely on weddings and parties until 2008, when a friend proposed with an engagement ring at the bottom of a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. She then became a proposal planner as well.

is this paragraph intentionally or accidentally bitchy

How does the idea of putting a ring in the bottom of a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken even happen, though? Like the only thing I can imagine being a worse idea is throwing the ring at the woman and screaming "DO YOU WANT TO GET MARRIED?"

How is that worse?

the ring is actually a bowling ball

hide the ring inside yr butthole #protip

that's actually how Bobby Brown proposed to Whitney Houston

encase the wedding ring inside a bowling ball

Throw the engagement ring into a room, scream "IF YOU WANT TO MARRY ME, GO FETCH THE RING!"

If the woman goes into the room, announce "I forgot to mention, inside this room, there are BEES!!!!!" as you lock the door.

Shout "BEEEEEEEEEEESSSS"

Tru <3 foreva

romance^

we are so going to put that woman out of business

don't you mean bees-ness

ILX Sandbox Proposal Idea and Honey Mfg Co.

how to go about asking this life-altering question memorably

oh, for crying out loud. eat leaden death, for you are unmasked as space aliens.

that's actually how Bobby Brown proposed to Whitney Houston

― OH NOES, Saturday, December 24, 2011 7:58 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

when whitney went to blow cocaine into bobbys butt there it was, she crey

https://www.facebook.com/people/Alison-Bamert/100001882422852

planners promise to help plot a scenario for the key moment and assist in its execution, with just the right helicopter, hot-air balloon or gondola, and along with it the proper locale and musical accompaniment

http://faculty.fullerton.edu/cmcconnell/H101A/Shark&Helicopter.bmp

the ring is inside the shark